Cloud's path: A Wish to be Normal
by Shiori-chi
Summary: What is the true standard of normal? Set in an alternate universe where Tifa is older than Cloud, Zack and Cloud both have a different family background. Cloud spent two years in the Slums before wanting to be SOLDIER, but to fail due to his physical conditions. Unlike every young and aspiring teens, Cloud instead went to work in Seventh Heaven. Cloud also prefers to be called Yun.


Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. There are some dark themes revolving this piece.

(Notes are at the end of the chapter.)

Chapter I : This where it begins.

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"Zackary Fair, keep your hands off that sword!" The black-haired boy visibly froze, tiny fingers a metre away from the mentioned item. Before he could sigh, the same feminine voice was raised again. "You would know better than to get curious and touch it. This is the fifth time in the month!"

"But, mom!" The boy now known as Zackary Fair, Zack in short, walked away from the 'Oh so dangerous' item and towards the voice, which was from the kitchen downstairs. Zack had a mess of spiky hair, a pair of faint lilac purple eyes, a cute little button nose and puffy cheeks that made his heart-shaped face looked even more adorable. Zack was 10 at that time, dressed in a simple cartoon character t-shirt and brown shorts.

"I want to hold a sword too! I want to protect mom! To be mom's hero!" Zack exclaimed. His tiny hands tightly gripped the said person's pale blue long skirt and his eyes sparkled. Soft giggles were heard from above Zack's head. A delicate looking hand slowly stroked Zack's hair. "Zack, I believed that you will be a great hero, but that sword is off-limits, alright?"

"Just another 5 more years and my baby boy is going off to be a SOLDIER." Zack's mother, whose appearance was blocked by a piece of white sheet that covers half of body, said in a comically sad tone. From the revealed area of Zack's mother, she had a fair complexion with a delicate build. She was also seated in a wheelchair that seemed to also serve as a mechanism to put her swords in.

"Mom!" Zack yelled while blushing faintly at the term baby boy. Her mother giggled. He then proceeded to hug his mother. Soft giggling was then interrupted with harsh coughing. "Mom! I'll get the medication!" Zack's voice was shaking and his tone was a worried tone as he rushed up to get her medication pills in her room.

"It's alright, dear." His mother managed to say in between coughs. Zack disregarded her words and got her a glass of water. "Zack, you know how your mother dislikes medicines right…" She sighed, knowing that Zack would force her the pills in one way or another if she refused them now. She threw the pills in her mouth and took a sip of water. With that, Zack was satisfied. She then rolled towards the fridge and took out a nicely decorated box. Placing it down of the table and she said, "Go on, open it."

 _That's right, that day was Zack's 10th birthday. However, little did Zack knew that, that day was also the last time he saw his beloved mother._

"My mother… That day… She disappeared with her wheelchair and the off-limits sword. The house wasn't messy but my mother… She won't leave the house without any notice! She always left a note if she was heading out! I searched everywhere for any clues that could lead me to her whereabouts, but all I found was the present that she never handed to me." Zack gulped down a lump of saliva that was building up in his mouth.

"A note she had written. 'Happy birthday Zack! I love you! Signed, your lovely mother.' was beautifully written on the piece of paper attached to my present. Later that week, my relative came and took custody of me. When I asked about my mother, they said that my parents had died 2 years ago and that they wanted us to find their baby."

"You parents abandoned you?!" The auburn man gasped out, and got hit in the head by a black-haired man who looked very mature and a glare from the long silver-haired man.

"Yea… But I couldn't care less. I continued questioning them about a blonde hair woman, a woman in wheelchair or a woman with a piece of cloth wrapped around the half of her body, but I got no real leads from them. I asked them how did they found me and why did they take so long. They said they didn't know where to start and 2 months ago, a letter about my whereabouts was sent to them. They said it would take about 2 months to reached Gongaga village from their hometown."

"Does that mean-" The black-haired man covered the auburn man's mouth with his hands and the rest of the sentence were muffled and intelligible. "Genesis!" came a smooth mature voice from the black-haired man. Zack's eyes were covered by his long bangs.

"Maybe…" He continued. "Gen didn't do anything wrong, Geal."

"Puppy, I'm fine. Angeal was just being considerate." The auburn man dubbed as Genesis, said while giving Zack a hug to show his way of consideration since he could not keep his mouth shut. Angeal, previously known as the mature voice and man, patted on Zack's back.

"Are you still searching for her?" came a silky and charming voice, which belonged to the long silver-haired man. His name is Sephiroth. Who didn't know him? I mean he is the only and youngest general of the Shinra army in the history. He had long silver hair, a pair of emerald green cat slit eyes that glowed vibrantly, a delicate aquiline nose and thin lips. He had a ridiculously good build and charming looks but was unfortunately, confirmed by his two commanders and one lieutenant, asexual.

"…Yes" was a soft reply from Zack. His voice was shaking like back then.

Why was Zack suddenly sharing such a story to his three close friends?

This was because it was a bonding session in the evening at Sephiroth's apartment, conducted by Genesis and Zack, out of boredom. After Zack's story, they could not just end the day with the gloominess. They decided to head to the famous bar in the Slums, introduced to them by Aeris, Zack's girlfriend. The bar name was Seventh Heaven.

In Seventh Heaven, the four men greeted the bar owner and headed towards the lounge. The lounge was inaccessible to anyone except the bar owner's close friends. The bar owner's name was Tifa Lockhart, a young woman in her 20s. She had long off-black hair and reddish-brown eyes. Tifa peaked a head into the lounge area and said, "So the usual?"

"Zack needs something lighter," Angeal replied, "otherwise, the usual."

"Alright, one moment! Yun-" Tifa said cheerfully and the rest of the sentence was mumbling and were not that important. Although, the four caught the rest but decide to ignore it.

Classical music was played in the lounge, while jazz music was played in the main area.

The next moment, a waiter came to serve them their ordered drinks. A waiter with the name-tag 'Yun', slowly waltzed in and carefully placed their drinks on the long table. The four men took the time to be mesmerized by his appearance, particularly his eyes. He had blonde spiky hair with a long ponytail tied at the back of his head, a black bandanna tied around those messy spikes, and big shiny blue eyes with a piercing gaze. His mouth and nose were covered by his black high neck shirt. He wore a pair of green pants with an apron on his waist and a pair of black boots.

"Here are your drinks." His voice was soft and for some reason, his eyes never left the ground.

'His eyes are beautiful.' They could not help but thought.

Yun turned his heels and started to walk towards the curtains. Zack bolted up from his place and reached forward to grab one of Yun's hands, which were both covered by black gloves. Startled by the sudden movement, Yun instinctively dodged Zack and pinned him on the ground with a red metal casing pocket knife pressed to his neck. Blue eyes widened with fear and confusion.

"Yun! Get off Zack!" Tifa, who just barged in, shouted but did nothing else. Fortunately, Angeal and Genesis did not lung at Yun the moment it happened, Sephiroth just watched Yun very closely. Zack could not even talk, much less move. She knew if she moved towards Zack, Yun would feel more frightened. She cautiously moved towards Sephiroth and the rest and whispered, "what did Zack do? I have never seen Yun shown such expression before."

Without answering Tifa, Sephiroth cautiously but quickly walked towards Yun. As he was a metre away from Yun, he realized that Yun was no longer paying attention to his surroundings. He cautiously moved Yun's arm away from Zack and asked Zack to move away, since Yun was not putting any weight onto Zack other than his knife. Feeling Sephiroth's skin in contact with his, Yun then turned his head abruptly and blue orbs were locked on green ones.

"What are you? Who are you?" Sephiroth was analyzing his surroundings.

"… No, who are you?"

"I apologized for my friend's actions. He did not mean to frighten you."

"… Who are you?"

"I'm Sephiroth." Sephiroth felt no need to introduced his official title, after all this place was no longer Midgar.

"I'm… Cloud."

"Then who is Yun?"

"Yun is what I prefer everyone to call me. It is the wutainese version of my name." Cloud explained while playing with his long ponytail. Sephiroth felt special.

"Where is this?"

"This is my world. This is where I dream…" The surroundings were of a galaxy and of a piece of flat rock. There were no buildings in sight and the stars were the only lights. "I was surprised."

"You are the first to be able come here…" Since Sephiroth entered this dimension, Cloud had been looking down on the floor. Cloud then looked straight into Sephiroth's eyes, and continued, "then you must be like me… I know those eyes. I have seen them before."

With that, Sephiroth was pulled back to reality. Everything in Cloud's mind happened in an instant of reality. Cloud pulled back his hand and shove his knife back into his pocket. He got up from the awkward position he was in and left without a word. Ignoring the shouts from Tifa and Zack, Angeal pulled Zack back from runing after the teen and Genesis was casting cure on Zack, just in case.

Without moving from the awkward position he was in, Sephiroth put his hand onto his chin and mouthed his name, 'Cloud'. He felt a smirk crawling on his lips. Cloud's blue eyes had a green shine. It was well hidden but it was definitely there. Cloud was different and Sephiroth, for the first time in his god forsaken life, desired something.

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Note:

1\. Yun is a chinese word of Cloud.

2\. Wutainese can be considered Korean, Japanese and Chinese in this alternate universe of mine.

3\. In case, you have not noticed, Yun is Cloud.

4\. There will be a prologue of what happened in the two years before Cloud became a waiter, posted.

5\. This story is related to the Time traveler story I posted a long while ago. But, it will not affect the reading here.

6\. Questions will be answered in the next chapter. There are lots of unanswered questions in this chapter.

7\. Feel free to be wild on your thoughts.

8\. Grammar errors and sentence structure problems will be fixed if possible.

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Author: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the ride. (Please don't ask about the other stories -insert sadface-)

Add-on: I felt this story isn't polished just yet; I meant the plot. I have a skeleton written but it is not complete. I felt that I should just throw the idea out. It's also a pretty cliche plot.


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